We are proud to announce that the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Dallas Section and the University of Texas, Dallas Student Section will be hosting the Fall 2014 Design Your World – STEM Conference for 6th through 12th grade girls on Saturday, November 1, 2014!
We anticipate hosting 120 students and 100 parents/educators at the Jonsson School of Engineering on the University of Dallas campus in Richardson, Texas.
Volunteers are needed to help with the Design Your World – STEM Conference, please complete the volunteer response form!
When: SATURDAY, November 1, 2014, 7:30AM-4:00PM Where: Jonsson School of Engineering, UTD Richardson, Texas Cost: Registration information will be available soon!
Sponsor information has been posted to the DYW website (click the “Sponsor” link in the sidebar). If you are interested in donating funds for this year’s Design Your World – STEM Conference for Girls, please review the sponsorship letter and form and follow the instructions!
On August 9, Dallas SWE Leadership met to transition responsibilities from our FY14 team to the incoming FY15 team, as well as getting feedback from members who joined us in the afternoon session. We discussed a lot of topics and SWE business items, but here are some highlights from our meeting!
Feedback from the FY14 Membership Survey was very useful. THANK YOU to those of you who took the time to give your feedback! If you haven’t made your voice heard, the survey is still open so do it today!
In general, suvey respondants reflected positively on the FY14 events they attended. For FY15 our goal is to have a mix of Professional Development, Networking, and Technical Tour meetings for you to enjoy.
Several members remarked that they have never been a part of a more diverse SWE group than our Dallas section. That’s a fantastic observation and something we are really proud of!
We get a lot of requests from local grade schools and colleges for representatives of Dallas SWE to visit classrooms or small groups so young ladies can meet and be inspired by a woman engineer. Keep your eyes peeled for opportunities for you to get involved in our community this year and make a difference in a girl’s life!
Our FY15 has a lot of great ideas for new membership recruitment and retention activities. We really value our members and want to make sure you know it.
FY14-FY15 Treasurer Shalini Nair and FY15 Section Representative Amanda Posadas
FY15 Section Representative Amanda Posadas and FY15 Section Representative and Webmaster Shelley Stracener
FY15 President Barbara Read and FY14 President Jennifer Vilbig
Our next Professional Development meeting is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, September 19. We will have more details on speaker information and location in the coming weeks.
Thanks again to our volunteer leadership team! If you are interested in being a member or chair of one of our Committees, please view our Committee Descriptions and fill out our Call for Interest Form online!
Come join Dallas SWE as we plan for FY15. If you want to have an impact on the direction of our organization, you have three opportunities to give Dallas SWE leadership your feedback and be involved in the planning for FY15. Please plan to participate today and consider joining us for the planning portion of our officer transition meeting!
FY15 Planning Session
The first part of this meeting will be for outgoing FY14 officers to transition their knowledge and experiences to incoming FY15 officers. In the afternoon, we will welcome all interested members to visit with our new Dallas SWE officers and let us know what you’d like to see from Dallas SWE in FY15!
Dallas SWE Leadership would like to know what you think about the past year. Follow the link and give us your feedback about FY14. It will help us during the August 9 session in planning for FY15. Please fill out the Dallas SWE FY14 Membership Survey whether or not you will attend the August 9 planning session.
Become a Committee Chair
If you are interested in improving your leadership skills, Dallas SWE has plenty of opportunities for you! View our Committee Descriptions and fill out our Call for Interest Form online TODAY!
Dallas SWE is an all-volunteer organization: we need your help to plan the best professional development events, reach out to our local communities, and be engaged with collegiate members in our geographic area. One of the ways you can get involved and improve your leadership skills is by becoming a Dallas SWE Committee Chair! We have all the resources you need to succeed in these positions.
Tonight was our annual Corporate Spotlight Event sponsored by Capital One! We met at Jasper’s in Plano for an evening of networking, tasty refreshments, and insights from our special guest speaker, Celie Niehaus. She shared with the 30 attendees her experiences in Capital One’s Compliance department, how she’s become a strong female leader in that organization, and how important it is to her that Capital One values her individual contributions towards their goal of making baking better.
Great group at our 2014 Capital One Corporate Spotlight Event! Guest Speaker: Celie Niehaus
Celie focused especially on how important individual performance is, whether you’re a man or woman, no matter what role you find yourself filling in an organization. She emphasized how crucial it is for recruitment teams to speak openly about the benefits of diversity programs and invest time and resources into encouraging engineers to make the most of their unique thought processes even if they are not currently in “traditional” engineering roles. She was also adamant that women bring the same skills and abilities to the table as men do, if we will only resist hesitation, take on new opportunities as they present themselves, and excel in the face of those challenges.
Her experience at Capital One has been one of inclusion, personal connections, and opportunities for achievement. There were several representatives from her team in attendance, and guests were invited to sign up to Capital One’s job notification system for positions in their fields of interest. Capital One has been a strong supporter of Dallas SWE the past two years and has contributed financially to our outreach series, Design Your World: STEM Conference for Girls. If you are interested in the career opportunities available at Capital One, visit their job website here.
Dallas SWE President for FY15, Barbara Read
After the Capital One program, Dallas SWE President for FY15 Barbara Read went through the SWE portion of the agenda, announcing upcoming events and important information about Region C and SWE HQ conferences. You can view the agenda here: July 15, 2014 Meeting Agenda.
Of special note is our call for interest to Committee Chair positions. You can view a list of committee descriptions here. If you are interested in any position, please email us or fill out our Call for Interest Survey to let us know. Dallas SWE is an all-volunteer-run organization and we need your help to make FY15 a success!
Recently, Dallas SWE helped Collin College charter a new SWE section on their campus. This summer, the Engineering Department at Collin has enabled the Collin College SWE section to sponsor a robotics camp this summer for girls. This camp will provide a unique opportunity to spend three fun filled days on our college campus experiencing an event that will stimulate the girls’ minds and unleash their creativity! They will also have female engineers from across the Metroplex as our lunch time guest speakers during the camp.
